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Friday, October 06, 2017

Modern Learning Environments?/ The Right wing Education Reforms / John Dewey / Helicopter parents / and being average

'But
at Feversham, the headteacher, Naveed Idrees, has embedded music, drama and art
into every part of the school day, with up to six hours of music a week for every
child, and with remarkable results. Seven years ago Feversham was in special
measures and making headlines for all the wrong reasons. Today it is rated “good”
by Ofsted and is in the top 10% nationally for pupil progress in reading,
writing and maths, according to the most recent data.’

‘Ms.
Streeter realized that "one of the greatest challenges for teachers and
principals is dealing with stressed, over-reaching parents who, like me, can't
see the bigger picture. What ostensibly counts as supportive parenting can
sometimes inadvertently disadvantage a child.”’

‘Support
for charter proliferation goes hand-in-hand with a lack of support for adequate
and equitable public school funding. No wonder the political right, which has
set the accumulation of

wealth for a small elite as its highest priority, loves
the charter movement. Second, the ties between SA and the political right
highlight a clear reality: The charter school movement is, at its core, an
anti-teachers union movement. Unions have been the backbone of the
Democratic Party for years -- especially public sector unions. And the teachers
unions have been pretty much the last vestige of professional unionism.’

‘As
Benade argues, a school is not a school until/unless it is about the quality of
the learning that goes on inside it. Examples like Strachan’s and Somerset’s
show us that these conceptions of modern learning had their roots firmly
planted a long time ago in the educational soil of New Zealand. When educators
dare to innovate, then conceptions of modern and innovative learning can
flourish and thrive.’

John
Dewey is one of the giants in the history of educational theory, and it’s
difficult to isolate one of his specific theories to discuss here. He was
influential in so many areas of educational reform, that to choose one theme
would do him a disservice, so I will highlight several of the areas in which he
was ahead of his time.’

‘The
Chromebook might be sufficient if you believe that the primary purpose of
school to be taking notes, looking stuff up, completing forms, and
communication. I find this to be an impoverished view of both learning and
computing. Children need and deserve more. If you find such uses compelling,
kids already own cellphones capable of performing such tasks.’

A growing body of research debunks the idea that school quality
is the main determinant of economic mobility. Another neoliberal tenet
bites the dust.

A myth?

'This
“rags to riches” tale embodies one of America’s most sacred narratives: that no
matter who you are, what your parents do, or where you grow up, with enough
education and hard work, you too can rise the economic ladder. A body of
research has since emerged to challenge this national story, casting the United
States not as a meritocracy but as a country where castes are reinforced by
factors like the race of one’s childhood neighbors and how unequally income is
distributed throughout society.’

Current negotiations to establish the next government in New
Zealand have a good likelihood of bringing about the end of national standards.
However, if this fails to happen, then this is what we will be seeing.

No time left to teach!

‘The government would have parents being updated in real
time every and any progress their child is making in National Standards
throughout the school day. They’re calling this ‘National Standards Plus’, largely because
of the additional time and energy that is going to be chewing into teachers
already busy schedule. The additional testing, the additional data gathering,
the additional reporting and notifying and uploading to the app’s system. All
this PLUS actually teaching the children.’

‘The idea that people have different styles of learning —
that the visually inclined do best by seeing new information, for example, or
others by hearing it — has been around since the 1950s, and recent research
suggests it’s still widely believed by teachers and laypeople alike. But is
there scientific evidence that learning styles exist?’

Children considered 'average' miss out as teachers focus
elsewhere, report warns

‘

Children labelled "average" by teachers are
missing out because more focus goes on those at the bottom of the class, a
report has found.Experts say children who are classified in the middle range
risk having late-blooming ability ignored as teachers assume they are neither
struggling nor overachieving.’

‘ILE designs are flexible, allowing for multiple learning
areas and activities within the one large space. Generally they are open-plan
and can encompass several year groups within the one space.The Ministry’s
intention is that by 2021 all classrooms will be modernised according to its
prescribed ILE standards.Support for this policy is far from universal among
education academics and teachers, with many highly critical of ILEs and how
they are being implemented.’

‘One thing seems obvious to me, after several decades
visiting primary classrooms, is that real I

An exciting environment

nnovation only comes from
creative teachers and not from imposed programmes. Unfortunately, all
too often, creative teachers are the last ones to be listened to in this era of
school consistency and formulaic 'best practices'. It seem we are moving
towards a standardised approach to learning at the very time when we need to
value (and protect) our creative teachers and their creative students.’

‘A number of trends have influenced the way schools and
classrooms have been organised over the decades; trends moving from traditional
classroom teaching to a more student centred learning - from 'the sage on
the stage to the guide on the side' .Today we now have the concept of
'innovative learning environments' linked with the development of 'modern
learning environments’.'